Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Town and Village Renewal Scheme was first introduced in 2016. It is one of a number of measures designed to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout Ireland. The Scheme is funded under Project Ireland 2040 as part of Our Rural Future.

The Scheme is targeted at towns and villages with a population of 10,000 or less. It is managed on behalf of my Department by the local authorities.

Since the launch of the Town and Village Renewal Scheme in 2016, over €113 million has been allocated to more than 1,400 projects across Ireland. Each year the priorities for the scheme are reviewed and revised as appropriate by my Department.

In 2021 a new Project Development Measure was introduced for pre-development costs (e.g. surveys) with the aim of contributing to a pipeline of significant, well developed projects that may subsequently be progressed, subject to the availability of further funding.

The 2022 Scheme was again revised to introduce a number of new measures including the Building Acquisition Measure and the Marketing Measure. In July, I approved €7.5m under the Building Acquisition Measure and in September €1.1m was approved under the Marketing Measure.

The 2022 Scheme placed particular emphasis on projects supporting bringing vacant and derelict properties back into use as multipurpose community spaces. The maximum grant under the Scheme was increased in 2021 and remained at the increased amount of €500,000 in 2022 to permit additional projects of scale to be funded.

The 2022 applications are currently under assessment and I hope to make an announcement on these before the end of the year.